"The Concept of History" - A Deep Historic Journey

Jun 12, 2022

past? history? History?

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Zhang Yusheng, "Days Without Cigarettes"

Collingwood, as a British historian and philosopher, showed his profound knowledge in "The Concept of History". The whole book starts from Greece and Rome, and starts a historical discussion from ancient times to the present.

The past, history and historiography contain and influence each other. The past is an existing fact and is absolutely objective. Although we, as rational people, cannot "interpret" or even "describe" such objectivity, the imprint in time cannot be erased, even if we cannot discover it. And history is to use "people" as a subject to interpret a period of past, how the past has become "past" is the problem that history needs to solve, and how history is used, which includes the motivation of those "people" And imagination is what history needs to explain. This book starts from the concept of history, and starts with the philosophy of history to conduct an in-depth and extensive discussion on how historians face the opposition between nature and humanities, face the opposition between absolute objectivity and absolute subjectivity, and face the scientific How does the rise show the initiative of "people"... That is to say, "The Concept of History" contextualizes and explains the concept and development of history. Through contextualized history, we can see the historians of each era, How philosophers and even scientists deal with the above problems.

Unlike science, history cannot give an absolute "answer", but it is precisely because there is no absolute "answer" that history is fascinating and charming. Collingwood begins by throwing out quite a few universal questions. What is the role of history? How does history work? Through the development and convergence of these questions, Collingwood was able to carry out the development process of history starting from Greece. Through the way he writes this book, he presents a practical teaching of how history works—asking questions.

Collingwood keeps throwing questions throughout the book, writing it in a way that contextualises and systematizes the questions that each historian needs to face in his time, and finds out how they dealt with them, and how. If it is solved, will other problems arise? Through the continuous generation of questions, a huge and complex dialogue field is formed. In such a field, Collingwood was able to use the name of a historian to discuss his theories and thinking in depth on the one hand, and on the other hand. A relatively broad review of the development of a period of history. The form of discourse that shapes the problem field is one of the major elements of history. Through the establishment of the problem field, historians are able to construct "prejudice" and through "prejudice" to build on the "past" as the basis history, this is the process of history building.

Second, history also involves the question of how to deal with the absolutely objective past and the absolutely subjective individual as a "human", as a rational person. Such questions push history into the realm of philosophy. Collingwood explained and analyzed the term "philosophy of history" at the beginning of the introduction. In terms of its prose logic, he mentioned what "philosophy of history" is at the beginning. It can be seen that history and philosophy are closely related, with philosophy as the body and history as the Use, the two are at odds with each other and originate from one. Rather than interpreting what is meant by philosophy of history in this article, Collingwood is looking for a foothold for a "discipline" such as philosophy of history. In his view, when mathematics, theology and natural sciences are no longer enough to satisfy people, history becomes the field of another problem. In other words, when one finds that the "past" cannot be explained in terms of mathematics, theology or natural sciences, history becomes a special issue that needs to be discussed. From this discussion, it can be found that history for human beings is an "instinct" to excavate themselves, and this instinct may be connected with "desire", because the passion and imagination displayed by desire require "norm" and "context" of.

And how to regulate such "desire"? This book takes the reader into the historian's solution. From this, we can roughly summarize several factors that deal with "history". These include the pursuit of truth, the influence of theology, the national imagination, the challenge from science (absolute and relative break), the projection of the future, and the positioning of human nature.

Since Greece, historians have noticed that the description of events should be as objective and rigorous as possible. It is not so much a deliberate move as it is a kind of innate human aversion to "desire" and Avoidance of "prejudice". Immediately, they also noticed that absolute objectivity cannot be established. Therefore, in the Greek era that emphasized "truth", history was only regarded as a narrative method and was not taken seriously. Therefore, the narrative characteristics of this period were It's about "people" and how people deal with people's deeds, projecting "truth" through this narrative. Although far from "truth", the core element of the history of this period-the objective pursuit is gradually taking shape at this time.

The subsequent development of history was influenced by Christian theology, which turned from man to "God". The metaphysical god becomes the referent of the will of history. When all the causal systems are combined into one purpose, history becomes relatively flat and simple. In addition, the influence of theology on history is that it provides a " regularity" imagination and suggestion.

This kind of suggestion was carried forward even more after the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. At this time, people's trust in reason turned the giant wheel of the times. In the steady progress of science, people believe that human memory and the past can also be included in a set of "theories" with regularity and can be observed. On the other hand, it also reflects the strong desire and optimism of human beings for mastering the future. In their view, human beings, more precisely "Europeans", can grasp the future through the analysis of the past, just as the analysis of the elements allowed them to grasp chemistry.

At the same time, the concept of "nation" has also influenced historians to interpret history. How to interpret the history of a nation, when objective history meets the glory and pride of the nation, how to adjust and even how to analyze such "subtle influence"? These have become intractable diseases that historians need to face and respond to.

And when science and humanities form a strong confrontation, the opposition between "truth" and "prejudice" in ancient Greece reappears in people's sight as if back to the shell, but in this confrontation, both humanities and science are no longer the same at that time. of each other, science has even directly become synonymous with "truth". At this point, historians began to interact with the humanities and sciences.

The discussion of history by the masters of German idealism can be said to be the product of such a context. For them, history can be deduced in a metaphysical rational spirit as the "master", and as a part of this spirit, human agency is reflected in how to "free". In response to the above discussions, Collingwood uses the passage of time to describe the past of history. In his writings, the development of history and the issues of concern are clear and smooth.

Through the discussion of historiography, the face of history can be revealed more clearly. For me, the discussion of the history of historiography may be more appropriate to respond to the level of life or the level of the public.

History itself is not an absolutely objective knowledge, and it is precisely because there is no absolute objectivity that it is necessary for us to accept the "absolute subjectivity" of others, and to tolerate different "prejudice" is not so much an academic attitude and research approach, but In life, it may be more important and difficult to achieve. Further, when absolute objectivity is impossible, how do we present and express our own positions and opinions. How to persuade oneself and others when expressing one's own position, and at the same time be tolerant and cultivated in the process, this is the reality level reflected in the discussion of the history of historiography.

Secondly, the book "The Concept of History" also touches on why history is important. In the "Philosophy of History", the answer given by Collingwood is passive. But after reading the whole book, perhaps the importance of history lies in "desire", whether it is "curiosity" about the past or "grasp" of the future or even "control" of human nature, etc., can be achieved through the description of the past. In other words, desire itself is innate and a kind of talent, but how do we use this talent to make it a "natural talent" rather than a "desire", this is what history needs to pay attention to.

Furthermore, in the face of such desires, how do we avoid indulgent subjectivity is also one of the problems that history needs to deal with. For the re-calling and reuse of the past, how do historians distinguish and analyze the past? Ghost" and was able to state the past in a relatively objective manner. The relatively objective attitude itself can be regarded as a kind of philosophical self-exploration, and it is necessary to "cleanse" all kinds of prejudices caused by sociological differences and temporal and spatial backgrounds. The society and environment in which we live, as well as various types of general knowledge, all require a certain degree of mastery and cognition. Only under such presuppositions can we be "relatively objective".

Finally, reverence and caution about the past or "absolutely objective" things may also be an important part of history. Instead of expressing your emotions and opinions directly, you might as well think and check first, collect more More information before the statement may avoid more arbitrariness and misfortune.